Brad Binder qualifies eighth in Austria

Although nobody had expected it after a wet morning, the Moto2 class enjoyed a completely dry qualifying session for the Austrian GP. Brad Binder achieved a great result in only the second dry session of the weekend, and his eighth place puts him in the centre of the third row.

Free Practice 3 was a wet session for the Red Bull KTM Ajo pair, who used their 45 minutes of track time to work on setups for a possible wet qualifying run. They steadily improved their lap times and felt ever more comfortable as the session progressed, with their final positions on the timesheets being fifteenth for Brad, with a 1:40.958.

The appearance of the sun and the path cleared by the MotoGP bikes in the previous session left the track completely dry for qualifying. With the slicks back on, there was a change to the normal strategy from the intermediate class, as the grid spots were not decided early on. Both Brad and teammate Miguel Oliveira set their best times on their final stints, with Brad leaping up the standings on his 21st lap for eighth -1:30.125.

#41 BRAD BINDER
“Considering how I started qualifying, I’m happy with this eighth position. I had problems at the beginning, but luckily when I came back to the garage and told the team what happened, they were able to solve the issue quickly and I felt better. Thanks to the team for working so fast, because without them I would not have achieved this position. Tomorrow I hope to have a good feeling during the warm up and then have a great race, but overall I feel good. I’m not too worried about the track conditions that we might encounter tomorrow. Whether it’s dry or wet, I know I can do a good job, but I’d prefer the race to be dry. We will see what we can do at this GP, which is so special for us.”